Small groups in the small church

For many decades most smaller churches looked to their Sunday school as the primary teaching arm of the church. In the early 1980s, when I was going to a Bible college, we were taught that the Sunday school was also the outreach agency of the church. I still remember the mantra that we were taught: The role of the Sunday school is to reach - teach - win - develop. Classes were structured to perform these functions, and in many churches they performed those functions well.

Today is a different story. In most churches the Sunday school is poorly attended with less than 50 percent of worship attenders involved in a Sunday school class. Evangelistic outreach is seldom done through the Sunday school program in many churches. Age-graded classes are not always found, especially in the smallest churches.

In many churches Sunday school still has an important role to fill, but it's doubtful that we'll ever return to a time when Sunday school is the primary education program of a church. Some are shocked that this is the case, but we need to remember that Sunday schools have only existed for a short period of time in the church. For most of church history the church used other formats to disciple believers.

The first century church met in homes. Evangelism was done through personal contact with unbelievers, and worship and discipleship occurred in the homes of the believers. Today we would call those small groups, and many churches are now using the small group format to provide training and fellowship for their members.

Earlier this year we began a series of small groups in the church I serve as Transitional Pastor. These groups were designed to meet for 10 weeks ending the week before Palm Sunday. Several families opened up their homes while other groups met in the church building. We allowed each small group to focus on any topic they wanted, as long as it received approval from the staff. Every proposal did receive that approval.

The small group I attended held our last meeting last night. Our small group leader was a Messianic Rabbi from Louisville who came each Wednesday evening to talk about the Jewish roots of Christianity. It was a fascinating study that could never have occurred in a Sunday school setting. We learned much about Jewish beliefs, how the Scriptures all pointed towards Jesus as the Messiah, and how to share our faith with Jewish people. It was fun and informative. The fellowship we shared during the meals prior to the study was wonderful. As I was leaving the host said they were ready to host another small group.

I have found small churches reluctant to use small groups. I guess many of them feel they are already a small group, but this format gives any church the opportunity to cover topics not normally covered in typical Sunday school material. One of our small groups this term focused on "Spiritual Parenting" which some of our young families with small children attended. I've been told it was another excellent group. Last term one of our small groups was on achieving balance in our lives, another topic much needed in our fast-paced world. These kinds of practical studies taught from a biblical perspective can be invaluable for Christians wanting to know how to incorporate their faith into their daily lives.

I would encourage churches of any size to pray about using small groups to provide training to their members. These can also be a great outreach opportunity. We've had some non-members attend our small groups because they were interested in the topic being presented. Set them up with a specific ending point so no one feels they are signing up for a life-long contract. 8-10 weeks is usually long enough, and if people are interested another short term small group can be offered. I truly believe doing this will dramatically improve the discipleship training in your church.